Earn the Right to More Yeses

Even though you may have won a yes from your buyer, it’s important to continue to earn the right to more yeses. People buy from sales pros they trust. Once trust is established and the buyer is satisfied with their purchase (becoming a happy client), it’s time to get some referred leads.

You begin this step of the sales process by creating an exceptional buying experience for each person. Realize that this is just the first step. Just because people love buying from you doesn’t mean they’ll give you referrals. You will still have to ask for them–in a completely professional manner.

It’s highly likely that your new clients will be telling others about their new product or service, and about how nice you were. People love being the one who referred others to a great product or excellent service. It allows them to become somewhat of a hero in the minds of those other people. And, who doesn’t want to be a hero?

Setting the stage to ask for referrals should happen fairly early in your sales process. It can be as simple as stating, “Our objective is to provide such exceptional service that you can’t wait to refer us to your friends and colleagues.”

Or, you could incorporate a story about another client into your presentation as you tell about a benefit of your product. That might sound like this: “A client referred me to Sheila, an office manager who said her company had a challenge with…” It’s a bit more subtle but still gets the point across that “people refer others to me.”

And, here’s an extra little hint for getting multiple referrals. When your buyer goes to their contact list to get you the information to reach out to Aunt Martha or Bob in another department, their whole world is right there at their fingertips. It’s super easy to ask them to also grab the contact information for three to six other people who could benefit from your product or service.

When you incorporate asking for referrals into every client contact (professionally, not in a pushy way), you practically guarantee yourself a successful career. Don’t think of it as asking for something else from buyers. What you’re really doing is offering to serve the needs of their friends, relatives or associates.